Final Scrimmage is Saturday for the Eagles Before Opener

Aug 22, 2013

With captains set for the fall, Eastern has already begun
preparations for Oregon State game on Aug. 31

The Eagles were anxious to get after it.

Already underway with game preparations for the team’s
opener against Oregon State on Aug. 31, the Eastern Washington
University football team will scrimmage for the last time this
Saturday (Aug. 24) at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. The scrimmage
will begin at approximately 9:45 a.m. and is free and open to the
public.

“We’ve made very good progress,” said Eastern
head coach Beau Baldwin of the first two weeks of
fall practices. “They had a lot of stuff thrown at them, but
they retained a lot from the spring. We are far from where we need
to be, but we are definitely at a point where we are underway with
game preparations for Oregon State.”

Baldwin’s offense generated numerous scores and 466 yards
in last week’s 86 play scrimmage, but he doesn’t expect
to have this week’s scrimmage be so situational.
Nevertheless, it will be an important gauge of his team before
opening the season Aug. 31 at Oregon State of the Pac-12
Conference.

“This scrimmage will be much more conventional,” he
said. “We’ll get into some situations early, but then
we’ll set the ball down and let them go. We want to see our
guys play ball – we want the offense to drive the ball down
the field as far as they can go, and let the defense work at
getting stops.”

On Thursday, senior linebacker Ronnie Hamlin
and senior offensive guard Steven Forgette were
chosen as second team selections on the 2013 College Sports Journal
Football Championship Subdivision Preseason All-America team. Both
have been previously honored on preseason All-America squads.

Captains Announced . . .

Baldwin announced team captains this week for the 2013 season,
and they include a quartet of seniors from high schools in the
state of Washington -- center Ashton Miller,
senior wide receiver Ashton Clark, senior safety
Allen Brown and junior linebacker Ronnie
Hamlin. The players were selected by a vote of their
teammates.

Ashton Miller . . .

Miller, a 2009 graduate of Evergreen High School in Vancouver,
Wash., has started 15 games in his Eastern career to rank fourth
among returning offensive players. Entering the
2013 season, he was selected to the College Sports Madness
preseason All-Big Sky Conference second team and ranked 14th on the
preseason FCS center rankings as selected by Josh Buchanan at
philsteele.com. At the end of spring practices, he was the
recipient on offense of the “Iron Eagle” Award for
achievements in the off-season in strength and conditioning and the
classroom. In 2012, Miller honorable mention All-Big Sky honors. He
was selected to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-District VIII
squad, which is selected by members of the College Sports
Information Directors Association (CoSIDA). He was also named to
the Big Sky Conference All-Academic team.

Ashton Clark . . .

Clark, who is also from Vancouver and graduated from Heritage
High School in 2009, has 83 catches for 1,091 yards and nine
touchdowns in his career. He was selected to the
College Sports Madness preseason All-Big Sky Conference first team
and ranked 47th on the preseason FCS wide receiver rankings as
selected by Josh Buchanan at philsteele.com. As a junior in 2012,
he was named to the Big Sky Conference All-Academic team. Clark
finished the 2012 season third on the team with 49 grabs for 650
yards and five scores, including a career-high 11 catches
(12th-most in school history) versus Southern Utah (10/27/12).

Allen Brown . . .

Brown is a 2009 graduate of Foss High School in Tacoma, Wash.,
and in July was selected by the Big Sky Conference to the
league’s Preseason All-Conference squad. He has played in 39
games in his career, with totals of 181 tackles, two interceptions
and 12 passes broken up. He is just 19 tackles from becoming the
34th Eagle in school history to finish with 200 career tackles. He
needs six passes broken up to rank on EWU’s top 10 list in
that category. He enters 2013 with 26 career starts, ranking first
on the defense and second overall (Steven Forgette has 31). At the
end of spring practices, Brown was the recipient on defense of the
“Iron Eagle” Award for achievements in the off-season
in strength and conditioning and the classroom. He finished second
on the team with 91 tackles in 2012 to help him earn second team
All-Big Sky honors. His average of 6.5 per game ranked 28th in the
Big Sky. He was also second on the team with seven passes broken up
to go along with a pair of forced fumbles.

Ronnie Hamlin . . .

Hamlin, who graduated in 2009 from Timberline High School and is
from Lacey, Wash., was also a preseason All-Big Sky selection. In
addition, he was selected in June as one of 20 players on the
initial watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award given to the top
player in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision by The Sports
Network. A 22-game starter for the Eagles, Hamlin has 221 tackles
already in his 25-game EWU career to rank 22nd in school history.
In 2012, Hamlin earned All-America honors from Phil Steele
Publications (fourth team) and was a first team All-Big Sky
Conference selection. He was also named to the Big Sky Conference
All-Academic team after starting all 14 games for the Eagles. In
addition, he was chosen as the team’s Defensive Player of the
Year. He had 136 tackles in 2012 to rank fifth in school history,
and his average of 9.71 per game ranked 31st in FCS and fourth in
the Big Sky. Despite being listed as a senior, Hamlin will
eventually apply to the NCAA to receive his sixth year in hopes of
replacing a pair of seasons wiped out because of knee injuries --
2009 as well as Eastern’s national championship season in
2010.